pulled off
when he woke up and found himself in hell. 'If it only had a little more
rain and good society----'"

"Now you hush up!" she cried, her lips beginning to tremble. "I guess
we've got enough trouble, without your making fun of it----"

"No. I'm not making fun of you!" protested Wunpost stoutly. "Haven't I
offered to build you a road? Well, what's the use of fiddling around,
packing silver ore down on burros, when you know from the start it won't
pay? First thing you folks know Judson Eells will come down on you and
grab the whole mine for nothing. Why not take some of my money that I've
buried under a rock and put in that aerial tramway?"

"Because we don't want to!" answered Wilhelmina tearfully; "my father
wants a _road_. And I don't think it's very kind of you, after all
we have suffered, to speak as if we were _fools_. If it wasn't for
that waterspout that washed away our road we'd be richer than you are,
today!"

"Oh, I don't know!" drawled Wunpost; "you don't know how rich I am. I
can take my mules and be back here in three days with ten thousand
dollars worth of ore!"

"You cannot!" she contradicted, and Wunpost's eyes began to bulge--he
was not used to lovely woman and her ways.

"Well, I'll just bet you I can," he responded deliberately. "What'll you
bet that I can't turn the trick?"

"I haven't got anything to bet," retorted Wilhelmina angrily, "but if I
did have, and it was right, I'd bet every cent I had--you're always
making big brags!"

"Yes, so you say," replied Wunpost evenly, "but I'll tell you what I'll
do. I'll put up a mule-load of ore against another sweet kiss--like you
give me when I first came in."

Wilhelmina bowed her head and blushed painfully beneath her curls and
then she turned away.

"I don't sell kisses," she said, and when he saw she was offended he put
aside his arrogant ways.

"No, I know, kid," he said, "you were just glad to see me--but why can't
you be glad all the time? Ain't I the same man? Well, you ought to be
glad then, if you see me coming back again."

"But somebody might kill you!" she answered quickly, "and then I'd be to
blame."

"They're scared to try it!" he boasted. "I've got 'em bluffed out. They
ain't a man left in the hills. And besides, I told Eells I wouldn't go
near the mine until he came through and sold me that contract. They's
nobody watching me now. And you can take the ore, if you should happen
to win, and build your father a road.